Raymond Blanc hated caviar at first

Celebrity chef Raymond Blanc created the Florette Sea and Earth Salad with a caviar worth �12,000-a-kilo and once only reserved for Russian Tsars.

The salad also has Almas golden caviar, Beluga caviar, kreel-caught langoustines, Cornish crab and lobster.

"That's �10," the chef joked as he tasted a small portion of the Almas caviar.

"I come from a working class background and when I tasted caviar for the first time I said 'eugh', that is for the rich."

The salad's ingredients also include Florette baby leaf salad, tossed in premium olive oil, along with grated truffle placed in a basket hand-made from courgettes, red peppers and potato and decorated with gold leaf.

WHAT IS IN A �635 SALAD? Florette Baby Leaf salad 50p Almas golden caviar �600 Beluga caviar �9 Truffle �5 Gold leaf �5 Kreel caught langoustines �5 Cornish crab �2 Cornish lobster �5 Moulin Jean Marie Cornille olive oil 50p Red romano peppers 50p Potato 10p 30yr old Balsamic Vinegar �3

Its total cost came to �635.60, including �600-worth of the Almas golden caviar, amounting to only 50g.

The estimated time to prepare the salad is six hours working from scratch.

Mr Blanc created the salad at the Hempel Hotel in Bayswater, west London, to mark Florette National Salad Week.

Mr Blanc said the idea of the demonstration was to draw attention to the versatility of salad.

He added: "Nobody has the time any more to stuff mushrooms and people are demanding more and more simplicity and fast food, and that it should be healthy.

"Salads play a very important role in this."